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SCOM vs SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer vs Zabbix comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.4
SCOM users experience varied ROI, with advantages in monitoring and management offset by potential licensing costs and latency issues.
Sentiment score
5.5
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer improves efficiency and cost management but may not offer significant ROI compared to cheaper options.
Sentiment score
7.7
Zabbix offers cost-effective, scalable monitoring with no fees, reducing downtime and commercial software expenses while increasing ROI.
There is a return on investment when purchasing SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer, as in the long run, there is a return on investments.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.8
Microsoft customer service is generally viewed positively, with efficient assistance and experienced staff, despite occasional consistency issues.
Sentiment score
7.3
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer customer service varies, with praise for higher support and mixed experiences regarding response times.
Sentiment score
6.9
Zabbix support is praised for responsiveness, community resources, and expertise, though documentation and non-paid support need improvement.
They often treat issues in isolation, not considering how one problem might relate to another.
When I was working directly with Microsoft at TCS, my first company, the support experience was quite smooth, and we received solutions promptly.
They often say that only premium subscribers receive support within one or two hours.
I would rate support eight out of ten.
I received efficient responses to many questions.
It is so straightforward that I have never had to use the support.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
SCOM offers scalable management, efficient load balancing, and high availability but faces challenges with non-Microsoft integration and diverse device monitoring.
Sentiment score
7.3
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer scales well for enterprises, but costs rise with licenses, and stability issues may occur.
Sentiment score
6.9
Zabbix is praised for its scalability, distributed architecture, and efficiency, despite needing robust databases for larger deployments.
The scalability of SCOM, meaning its ability to adapt to our needs, is excellent because we are working with SQL systems and multiple servers.
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is a scalable solution, and by adding licenses, I can use the same deployment and instance to onboard more elements and nodes.
The license is based on the count of the ports.
Zabbix is very scalable and lightweight.
Zabbix has high scalability.
I would rate its scalability ten out of ten.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
SCOM's stability has improved significantly, especially in newer versions like 2019, with proper configuration and resource allocation.
Sentiment score
7.1
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is stable, rated 7-10, with occasional issues from large databases and SQL environment demands.
Sentiment score
7.6
Zabbix is reliable and stable, with minimal issues; users value its low resource use and effective monitoring.
I have not seen many errors or frequent data loss because once we have installed the agent on the system and have the details, not much manual intervention is required.
SCOM is a bit unstable lately, primarily due to a lack of resources.
Zabbix is very scalable and lightweight.
Zabbix is quite stable, and we haven't had any problems with Zabbix itself.
 

Room For Improvement

SCOM needs better dashboards, lower licensing costs, easier integration, improved reporting, enhanced support, and efficient alert management.
SolarWinds NetFlow Analyzer faces installation woes, limited support, integration issues, and demands for better interfaces, pricing, and AI features.
Zabbix users seek UI improvements, better documentation, enhanced reporting, security, automation, integration, and modern workload adaptations.
I would like to see a software-as-a-service version in Azure to eliminate the need for on-premise infrastructure.
SCOM is likely to be phased out in favor of more compatible tools like Icinga for application monitoring or when moving to cloud solutions like CloudWatch and Azure.
It would be beneficial to have a summary on one single dashboard, as there are many more possibilities available.
Ideally, NetFlow should have a robust alerting mechanism.
It should be like a Meraki cloud, where if you are familiar with Meraki devices, you can locate any device directly on the world map.
Deployment needs improvement; the process is complicated, requiring attention to infrastructure settings and installation of components like the origin application server, platform, close storage, and policy agents.
The only issue I can note is that it's Linux-based, and Linux documentation is not the best.
 

Setup Cost

SCOM pricing varies with agreements, often part of cost-effective Microsoft packages, though licensing can be complex initially.
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer's pricing is fair yet potentially costly, especially when scaling or compared to flexible competitors.
Zabbix, a cost-effective open-source solution, offers free access without hidden fees, making it popular for enterprise adoption.
provide a rating of nine out of ten
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer's model is quite costly compared to other brands.
 

Valuable Features

SCOM efficiently monitors Microsoft environments with integration, customizable dashboards, real-time reporting, and automated alerts for proactive management.
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer provides traffic analysis, real-time metrics, customizable reports, and integration for enhanced network performance management.
Zabbix provides open-source monitoring with customizable features, strong scalability, and robust support, ideal for cost-effective IT infrastructure management.
It assists me in detecting server downtime and delivers basic performance monitoring right out of the box.
The most valuable feature of SCOM is its monitoring capability, and we have integrated SCOM with Grafana, which is a dashboarding tool.
SCOM integrates several systems and offers correlation features, like setting up everything around Active Directory or DNS.
This tool provides insights into top utilization applications or it identifies which circuit or application is consuming the most on the complete one-gig circuit traffic path.
The bandwidth indicates the utilization of the devices; if any issue occurs, it triggers an alert for me.
The best feature is customizable reporting, which includes network diagrams and monitoring of various types of bandwidth usage and peak times.
If disk usage surpasses a threshold, say 70%, I receive alerts and can take proactive action.
Zabbix has a lot of features, including monitoring, status updates, and collecting information telemetry from storages and servers as well.
 

Mindshare comparison

Event Monitoring
Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)
Network Monitoring Software
 

Featured Reviews

MarcMermuys - PeerSpot reviewer
Has efficient monitoring with robust integration capabilities
We use SCOM to configure different monitors using several management packs. It integrates systems like Active Directory and correlates them, and it is used for monitoring and managing systems SCOM allows integration of several systems, providing correlation between different systems such as…
Raja Xabi - PeerSpot reviewer
Improved bandwidth management and network visibility have resulted in financial benefits and streamlined operations
There is always room for improvement in SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer, such as implementing instant reporting based on business intelligence reports and more granular filters in their dashboard to improve the GUI view and reporting. The licensing model of SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is always an issue for users because competitors offer unlimited and perpetual licenses, and SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer's model is quite costly compared to other brands. If users are comfortable with SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer, they have to make the hard decision to invest, and it's suggested from a user's perspective that SolarWinds should improve their financial model and licensing to become competitive, especially for small to medium businesses.
B Ahmed - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables seamless global client monitoring with reliable remote connectivity
I use the solution to provide a perfect environment for remote connectivity with my clients. Many tools that I require for system maintenance are included. I can easily monitor all of my clients throughout the world I did not give much thought to it, however, improvements could be made to Zabbix.…
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Comparison Review

it_user174738 - PeerSpot reviewer
May 31, 2015
Nagios vs. Zabbix vs. PRTG vs. Spiceworks vs. Solarwinds Network Performance Monitor
I have researched a quite a few network monitoring tools which can be used for various monitoring purposes of not only the servers, but the intermediate routers as well. There are majorly three types of these softwares. Ones which are completely open-source, you can do almost anything you want…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
21%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Educational Organization
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about SCOM?
The tool helps to monitor Windows servers. It offers alerts from a central location.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SCOM?
I am not aware of the exact pricing as it is managed by my supervisor. As an academic institution, we receive substan...
What needs improvement with SCOM?
We believe that the dashboarding in SCOM needs to be improved or enhanced because it is not too expressive in reporti...
What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?
I have worked from 1973 with all kind of systems in large enterprises across the world. And have experience with all ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer?
The licensing model of SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer is always an issue for users because competitors offer unl...
What needs improvement with SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer?
There is always room for improvement in SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer, such as implementing instant reporting b...
What do you like most about Zabbix?
The template system in Zabbix is very beneficial as it saves time in configuration.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zabbix?
We didn't use the commercial version. We used the free version.
What needs improvement with Zabbix?
I think it's the best solution for monitoring. I don't know any better.
 

Also Known As

System Center Operations Manager, SCOM 2012
Netflow Traffic Analyzer
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Dialog Telekom
Oceaneering International, Asia Pacific Network Information Centre, 335th Signal Command, Immofori
1. IBM 2. Dell 3. Cisco 4. HP 5. Oracle 6. Microsoft 7. Amazon 8. Google 9. Facebook 10. Twitter 11. LinkedIn 12. Netflix 13. Adobe 14. VMware 15. Salesforce 16. SAP 17. Intel 18. AT&T 19. Verizon 20. T-Mobile 21. Vodafone 22. Ericsson 23. Nokia 24. Siemens 25. General Electric 26. Honeywell 27. Philips 28. Sony 29. Samsung 30. LG 31. Panasonic 32. Toshiba
Find out what your peers are saying about ServiceNow, BMC, OpsRamp and others in Event Monitoring. Updated: June 2025.
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